Basic Trope: The heroes hesitate on whether or not to wipe out an Always Chaotic Evil race.
- Straight: Maxine is a Demon Slayer who finds a MacGuffin that will allow her to wipe out the demons once and for all, but she's all too aware of the moral ramifications of doing so.
- Exaggerated: Maxine crushes an anthill. As soon as she sees this, she crosses the Despair Event Horizon.
- Downplayed: There are three people in a species, all complete monsters, and she has a way to kill them, so Maxine is slightly saddened.
- Justified:
- Maxine has been warned against becoming She Who Fights Monsters.
- Maxine has seen evidence that some of the demons might be Not Always Evil, and it's causing doubts in her mind about whether it would be right to kill the possibly-redeemable ones along with the others.
- Inverted: Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide"
- Subverted: Then she realizes that the demons would cause exponentially more suffering to others than Maxine would cause by destroying them.
- Double Subverted: But there must be a better option than genocide...seal them in Hell?
- Parodied:
- The demons are actually corrupted human souls, and "killing" them would in fact be purifying them and allowing them to go to Heaven. Maxine is aware of this, but still wangsts about how she'd be crossing the Moral Event Horizon.
- The entire trope is set up, and as the team is arguing over whether they should do it, who should do it, and the morality of the entire thing, Jax hammers the Big Red Button with his face.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Guilt-Free Extermination War
- The subject of genocide is not brought up.
- Enforced: The show is a bit Darker and Edgier, but it's aimed at adolescents. The heroes can't be shown committing an morally questionable action without considering the ethics.
- Lampshaded: "If I destroy the demons, will I be any better than them?"
- Invoked: One of the demons gives Maxine a "Not So Different" Remark just as she's about to use the MacGuffin.
- Exploited: While Maxine is distracted, one of the demons sneaks past it and uses it to wipe out his species.
- Defied:
- "It's my duty to defend humanity. I'm going through with this."
- Maxine destroys the MacGuffin with her own hands as soon as she gets a hold of it. "I don't care if this would have been a much simpler way - I will not stoop to their level of evil in fighting evil."
- An Ascended Demon who has come to despise his own species and sympathize with Maxine realizes the dilemma she is now in, and so without asking uses the MacGuffin before she can make a choice. "This is not a decision that you should have to live with for the rest of your life..." he says as he too dies.
- Discussed: "Look, we've already tried reasoning with them. If we don't do this, we might as well be taking their side." "I know, but that doesn't make it any easier."
- Conversed:Nicole:Remarkable how much you learn about someone from one little decision.Oscar:I'd hardly call choosing whether to sacrifice your character or multitudes of lives "little".
- Implied: The demons are not all Always Chaotic Evil, but their presence is causing the universe to destabilize. Killing them all would save the universe, but it's still a horrible call and treated as such.
- Deconstructed: Lucas calls Maxine out on her hypocrisy for hunting demons but being unwilling to destroy them as a race. This leaves Maxine with two choices: either use the MacGuffin and bear the moral consequences, or stop fighting and sit at home drowning her sorrows while the Legions of Hell roam the earth.
- Reconstructed: Unfortunately, there really isn't a way other than the MacGuffin, and everyone in the universe - demons included - will be destroyed if this continues. Either way, the demons will die, but using the MacGuffin makes sure everyone else survives.
- Played For Laughs: Maxine agonises over whether or not to wash her hands with antibacterial soap, since she sees it as mass murder.
- Played For Drama: After much hesitation, Maxine activates the MacGuffin and kills all the demons. She then decides "there's one last demon I need to deal with", goes away and turns her gun on herself.
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